Lead Editor: Gareth Schott (University of Waikato, NZ)
We invite extended abstract proposals for chapters that explore the significance of songs sung in marginalised or minority languages within contemporary music genres (from indige-punk, metal, hardcore, hip hop, rap, pop and so on). For so many minority cultures, language signifies survival. Language presence in contemporary music often constitutes a conscious form of language activism, in terms of freedom of expression and/or a deliberate effort to revive language through increasing its presence, value and usage. As Huang (2022) notes, through modern music the perception of minority languages can be shifted “from traditional, inferior, and underprivileged to international, modern, and confident” (p. 44). Additionally, the appropriation of the affordances of contemporary music genres also allows culture and identity to be encoded and performed differently. Accounts from the small and diffuse African metal scene, for example, suggests that the genre not only provides “an identity that they discovered and cherish, not one that is chosen for them” (Banchs, 2016), but also a musical template for mixing “abrasive tones and dystopian language [that] implicitly and explicitly attacks norms, religion, the economic and political status quo, and social injustice” (Buckland, 2016, p. 145). We seek scholarly essays and research outlining significant examples of minority language use in current or recently active music scenes.
This collection constitutes an extension of research currently being conducted as part of a research partnership between Cardiff University in Cymru (Wales) and University of Waikato in Aotearoa (New Zealand), focused on exploring the role and function of contemporary music within language revitalisation. This collection will provide an opportunity to broaden our conversations by incorporating contributions and examples from a wider range of scholars and/or music practitioners that have stories to tell regarding the role contemporary music can play in language reclamation and its contributions to language revival and revitalisation. We therefore invite contributions that demonstrate and explore the ways in which the presence of marginalised or minority languages within contemporary music genres can shift the perception, status, health and impact of those languages, with particular interest in (but not limited to) cultures impacted by colonisation and/or cultural assimilation.
In editing this collection we hold language as taonga (a treasure) – one that requires protection and nurturing. In doing so, we invite examples of how minority or ‘treasure languages’ (Grinevald & Pivot, 2013) renew their meaning and relevance beyond more traditional national musical identities and their conventional contexts. We are seeking to instigate discussion of music that go beyond traditional or established musical expressions that have come to characterise cultural identity – such as the unisonance of rousing renditions of national anthem Mae Hen Wlad Fy Nadau (James & James, 1856) by Welsh sports crowds, or the sense of place, belonging or identity aroused by the particular quality and sounds of national instruments (bagpipes, harp, koto, mandolin, lyre etc.), musical motifs or styles. Instead, we seek contributions that acknowledge and theorise the musical, cultural and social significance of neoteric musical performances of minority language. Drawing on our own project, interesting examples from Aotearoa (NZ) include heavy metal band Alien Weaponry who express Māori persecution through songs sung in te reo Māori such as Rū Ana Te Whenua; the connection felt by the progenitors of Aotearoa hip hop, the Upper Hutt Posse, to Malcom X and Louis Farrakhan that inspired their track E Tū, in which they voiced their indebtedness to the past defiance of Māori chiefs and leaders Te Rauparaha (Ngāti Toa) and Te Kooti (Ngāti Maru); or Pākēha-singer Lorde releasing translated versions of Solar Power tracks sung in te reo Māori on the EP Te Ao Mārama that led to public debates as to whether artists that do not trace their genealogy (whakapapa) to Māori should serve as an international representative of the language.
We seek contributions that will give scholarly consideration to the work and impact of artists such as the likes of Baker Boy (Yolngu, Australia), Alice Skye (Wergaia/Wemba Wemba, Australia), Jayli Wolf (Saulteau First Nation, Canada), Laura Niquay (Quebec-Atikamekw, Canada), Adwaith (Cymraeg/Welsh), Gwenno (Cornish/Welsh), Heljareyga (Faroese), Amoc (Sámi, Finland), Hladno Pivo (Šatrovački, Croatia), Juana Ghani (Romanés, USA), Dookoom (Afrikkans, Sabela, South Africa), Arka’n (Ewe, Togo) to name but a few.
Furthermore, we encourage abstract proposals for chapters that address (but are not limited to) the following issues:
• How indigenous, marginalised or minority language music is being received by the ears of mainstream audiences, occasionally occupying its own unique space nationally/internationally
• Forms of cultural appreciation and language adoption via music and music fandom.
• Acts of reclamation: Addressing the loss of a heritage language and associated feelings of guilt or shame via music (writing, performance or consumption)
• How local scenes and d.i.y culture combat digital colonisation by large corporations that determine ‘popular’ music and tastes
• Protest Songs: awareness raising, injustices, working through cultural trauma
• Language Fit: How well languages fit contemporary genres
• Conceptualising and theorising language resilience
• Translation practices and the issue of the untranslatability of certain concepts, ideas or words
• Audiences: reception and the balance between mystery and reinforcing community
• Language evolution and change via music and song
• Identity and place: psycho-geography; location or geography in song lyrics;
• Identity Development: youth, urban, culture, national.
Key Dates:
Extended Abstracts (up to 750 words) to be submitted by 1st February, 2024
Notification of acceptance to be expected by 1st of March, 2024
Full Chapter (5,000-8,000 words) to be submitted 1st June, 2024
Abstracts should be emailed to: gareth.schott@waikato.ac.nz